


just be

by letusgofarfaraway



Category: Dredd (2012), Judge Dredd - All Media Types
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-04-07
Updated: 2015-04-07
Packaged: 2018-03-21 19:07:04
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,702
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3702651
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/letusgofarfaraway/pseuds/letusgofarfaraway
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>After an explosion on a drug bust Anderson ends in Hall of Justice's Hospital</p>
            </blockquote>





	just be

**Author's Note:**

> Ok this is my first work on Judge Dredd. I only seen the 2012 movie and simply loved Karl Urban. I tried to grasp the character of Dredd and Anderson through skimmed comics and all info I could get.   
> Don't own any characters of Judge Dredd universe.

Dredd walked quickly down the hall but his posture was straight, shoulders broad, helmet head held high. He was a man on a mission, his target-Chief Judge Hershey Office. He barged in like he was known for doing,  Chief Judge Hershey was at her desk going through the paperwork, per usual. She didn’t even rise her head when he barreled in.

“She is fine.” Chief Judge said as she raised her eyes to meet his helmet. “ I spoke with the medics, they said she should be waking up soon.” At hearing this Dredd’s fist clenched. It was something he was hearing for 3 days now. When he was not on his patrol, he sat at her hospital bed. He didn’t know what he was waiting for. It was sure she wasn’t waking up anytime soon. The medics kept her in a medical induced coma, because even in her natural unconscious state, her psychic mind would lash out at any approaching other mind it did not recognize at the first contact. Thanks to the Judges helmets it was hard for Anderson psychic mind to penetrate the owners mind as quickly, so in irony, Dredd was instructed how to dose the medication into Anderson’s IV that would put her into a coma. Only then the medics were able to do their job.

\---------------------------------

_Chaos. That’s what was happening. There were shots fired from every direction, dust and flying debris made it unable to pinpoint the shooters. But not for her. Her mind sharp, being able to ‘see’ every single one of the perps that were oh so desperately trying to bring them down. Dredd called a 10-24, a Judge under fire, backup requested. Both of them did their best to stand their ground, the perps were cornered, the had nowhere to go, the Judges just had to stand ground. And then, this sickening thought crossed her open mind. The vision of death, pain, obliteration. And the perps sickening pleasure that came with this thought. Heavy arms. The brought heavy guns meant to bring down TANKS. And they were going to fire it at them. Her hands holding the Lawgiver lowered to her sides, her eyes wide. Dredd noticed the change, looked at her. His hard scowl turned into a tin lipped line. He took a deep breath to ask her what was going on, when suddenly with a yell ‘GET DOWN’ she threw her smaller body against his bulky form with so much force she managed to knock him over. And then, this huge explosion. Everything went white._

Anderson’s eyes shot open and she took a deep breath, startled awake by the memory. The room she found herself in was white, brightly lit. She didn’t recognize her surroundings and she quickly became aware of strange machinery noises, when suddenly a shape appeared in the corner of her eye. She was not taking any chances. Not after the explosion. She let her frantic mind loose. She heard screams and the sound of bodies falling down. An alarm set off.

\---------------------------------

Dredd and Chief Judge Hershey raised their heads when all the lights dimmed for a second and an alarm was set off, activating the sprinklers.

“Well, she’s up.” Said Chief Judge and smiled at the face Dredd made. He turned sharply on his heel and left the office without a word.

The corridors were frantic, people were hurrying around, no one knew what happened.

“Chief!” “Chief-Judge!” “Ma’am are you alright?!” came loud calls.

“Someone turn  this fucking water off! And turn this alarm off! We need to change this fucking alarm system, so a waking up psychic doesn’t set it off again!” Hershey yelled to people scattering to quickly do as the Chief-Judge ordered.

By the time Dredd got to the Medical part of the Hall of Justice the water was turned off along with the blaring alarm. What unnerved him was the big hustle around one of the recovery rooms. Doctors were loudly displaying commands and nurses were hurrying around to do as they were told. Dredd made his way through all that hustle while a few nurses tried to stop him, he just pushed them all aside and barged into the room he visited daily. What he saw made him growl, that brought all eyes to his towering figure. Anderson was fighting off a flock of nurses who were trying to pin her down while the medics were preparing an injection of another tranquilizer.

“Anderson” he said loudly and the room fell still. Anderson’s brown eyes widened when they fell on him, filling with disbelief. He did not understand why would she be so shocked to see him.

“Dredd” she breathed out. He kept his gaze on her for a second and then shifted his head to look at the rest of the personnel.

“Release her.” Was his simple command. The nurses out of fear loosened their hold on the female Judge, but quickly recovered when the medics spoke up.

“Sir, we cannot release Judge Anderson until we make sure she is healing properly.”

“I believe this does not require for Judge Anderson to be tied down and pumped with tranquilizers.” came the Chief-Judge voice as she entered the room.

“Ma’am!” all personnel in the room stood at attention upon her entrance.

“Doctor,” she turned to the head medic in the room, “please perform a check up on Judge Anderson, the rest of the medics and nurses are ordered to clear the room.”

Every nurse and assisting medics muttered a fast “Yes sir” and quickly left the room, leaving Anderson alone on the medical bed, her hair in disarray, medical gown slipping off of one shoulder, her eyes still wide and not leaving Dredd’s face. Taking advantage of her current state of shock the head medic checked her vitals on the few screens, made a quick work on her bandaged-almost healed-injuries and only when he flashed light into her eyes to check her retina reaction did she flinch away from her and shake from her shock.

“What’s the verdict, Doctor.” Hershey asked observing him with a calm stare, her back straight, arms crossed behind her back. Dredd watched his every move, arms at his sides. The medic knew that one wrong move, one cry of pain from his patient, and this Lawgiver that was mere inches from Dredd’s fingers will be pointed at his head.

“Yes, Chief-Judge. Judge Anderson’s health has improved. She is ready to function without the help of the lifesaving machinery. I advise for her to stay overnight, but tomorrow she can be signed out and be reassigned to active duty.”

“Thank you, doctor. You are dismissed.” Hershey nodded curtly at the medic who hurried out of the room. When he was out Hershey looked for a while at Anderson then turned to Dredd. “I believe you have this covered.” Then turning back to Anderson “Good to have you back, Judge.” And with that, she also left the room, closing the door behind her, giving the two Judges some privacy.

Dredd walked Hershey out with his gaze, scowl never leaving his face. When the door closed behind her he turned his attention to his partner. She never once changed her position, eyes fixed on him, breathing deeply as he made these few steps to stand at the foot of her hospital bed. She opened her mouth to speak, but no words came out. Licking her lips she took another deep breath.

“I’m..I’m sorry for what I’m about to do, sir.” This made his scowl to transform into a tin lipped line, as he did not get what she meant. She stopped referring to him as ‘Sir’ a long time ago. But Dredd had no time to further think about what Anderson said as she scrambled out of the covers and all but thrown herself at him. Out of surprise he wrapped an arm around her waist to hold her steady as her face fit between his chin and shoulder. He could hear her chanting “Oh my God. Oh my God” over and over.

“Anderson” he said trying to get her attention. It worked, her breath hitched and she let go of him as if he burned.

“I’m sorry! I’m so sorry Dredd! It’s just, the explosion, the heavy artillery ammunition, I heard their thoughts, I saw what they were going to do. The shooter was right in front of you, I felt his mind, ready to shoot. All I could think of was to just…and I know it was irrational and unprofessional. And when I woke up, there were people around me, too many thoughts and I tried to find your mind, but you always hold up your walls and I just couldn’t pin point you…so I lashed out..”

“And you broke the alarm system in the whole building.” He interrupted her rambling. She quickly looked at him only to see his usual scowl slowly transform into a slight smirk. He turned to the doors, made sure they were locked before turning back to her bedside. Slowly and a little unsure he reached for his helmet and pulled it off his head. He set it down at the small table and sat on the hard plastic chair shifting his brown eyes at Anderson. All she could do was stare. She sees it. She sees his face. His brown eyes, dark nearly black short hair, matted and sweaty from the helmet. For a battle worn Judge that everybody fears Dredd has a very sharp, handsome face.

“Dredd…why..” his previous words suddenly made sense in her shocked mind “What do you mean I caused the alarm..”

“I’m sure Chief-Judge will want to look deeper into this. Your psychic mind lashed out, you rendered unconscious half the medic staff on the floor and blew the alarm off.” Anderson looked ahead, unblinking. She shifted her gaze at Dredd and stared into his eyes, his gaze never wavering when suddenly she lifts her arm and slaps the palm of her hand on his face. Silence fell among them as he stared at her face hard through the fingers while she stared back.

“What are you doing.” He said against her hand.

“Checking.”

“What.”

“If this is your real face or another helmet you would wear underneath the first one.” An annoyed huff of air against her palm was Anderson’s only answer, but that was enough for her. She smiled and removed her hand and Dredd closed in eyes in relief to be left alone, only to feel his cheek be poked. Dredd’s eyes snap open with a growl to stare at Anderson’s stupid smiling face as she kept prodding his face which bore the usual two day stubble.

“Sorry, it’s just so surprising to see your face.” He was about to comment that but decided to send her his death glares after what she said next. “You even look human!”

“I pulled your sorry ass out of debris and carried it out of the housing block and this is what I hear.”

“Hey! I am thankful! But I saved your grumpy ass first!”

“This is no way to speak to your superiors.” He said sternly, but Anderson would not have any of this. A few minutes ago she was certain she has lost her partner in an explosion.

“Superior my ass! We are partners! And I am not going to let you act like nothing happened, you big grump!” for emphasis she took her pillow and threw it at him. The pillow hit Dredd’s face, and then almost shamefully fell to the ground. His eyes left her face to stare at the offending pillow. Picking it up he stood from the stool and stared at the blonde kneeling on the hospital bed. Anderson, now noticing what she had done tried to apologize, but was interrupted by a hard shove that send her with a squeal on her back. She was about to protect herself from an oncoming blow from a pillow but when nothing came she opened her eyes. Her chocolate brown eyes met his heated brown eyes hung above her head. Dredd supported his weight on his arms trapping her between them. They stared upon each other for a while in silence the only sound was their breathing.

“Don’t ever do it again.” Dredd suddenly said. At first Anderson thought he meant the pillow and was about to question it, but one look at his eyes and she knew, this is not what he meant.

Anderson gazed at him and smiled lightly. Without saying anything she lifted her arms and woven her fingers in Dredd’s short dark hair, making them even more disarray.

“You know, you look good without a helmet. I like it.” Anderson let her hands drop when her answer was a huff of air, making her smile even wider. “Do you have a shift today?”

“No.”

“Good. Come here.” She said as she squirmed her way out from between his arms, rearranged the pillows laying back down but scooted to the side of the bed, making room for him. He just looked at her puzzled.

“Oh don’t give me that look. You don’t have a shift, I’m not supposed to leave till tomorrow, off with those boots and the Kevlar jacket and come here. Tell me what I missed.” Said Anderson gesturing to the free space next to her. Dredd stood there thinking her offer through in his mind. The only thing that he could think of was how much she changed him, how he acted around her. He was still the big bad Dredd with the other Judges and the perps nearly shat themselves at the mere mention of him, but with her, he was Dredd, and nothing less. And he came to think that he liked that. He sat on the plastic chair and pulled off his boots, dropped the Kevlar jacket which left him in his combat trousers and a black sleeveless shirt, and with a heavy grunt stretched by her on the medical bed.

“Now what?” he grumped out lifting his hand to comb through his hair, he wasn’t going to let her know how he liked that she treated him as the best thing in her whole wide world.

“Now you tell me what happened after I oh so bravely pushed you out of the way of the shot.” She said as she made herself  more comfortable on her side tucking into his side and using his hard chest as a pillow taking advantage of the moment of his raised arm.

Dredd stared at her for a second, shocked at her actions. The thought tumbled around his head and he had no idea what to make of it, but soon decided that he was too tired to care. So a little reluctantly he dropped his arm at her side, resting his palm on her shoulder, his fingers gripping reassuringly. He didn’t know who he was reassuring. Her that she was safe with him, or himself that she was real. Deciding not to dwell on this, Dredd took a deep breath and started from the beginning.

“After the explosion debris flew everywhere, covering us up. I dug my way out, but when I reached the surface, all of the perps have scattered, believing us dead. I called in an immediate request of a rescue team and a meat-wagon, but waiting was out of option. You were still under the debris. I had no tools, so I started digging and throwing the debris out of the way, until I saw that blonde head of yours. It’s like a beacon, you know. And if you were wearing that helmet you wouldn’t be here now,” he said the last part in jest, which made her huff in mock anger and lightly punch his chest. He let out a light chuckle that build in his chest. To Anderson it sounded more like a tumbling thunder. She decided it was her favorite sound.

When he was telling her the rest of what have happened, she listened intently without interrupting. And he thought that one day, he would tell her. But not today. Today he would allow himself to just ‘be’.


End file.
